You know the feeling when you have just experienced something so motivating you just have to write it down? You just need to tell someone – you just know the story angle, and it is perfect. Well for me today was one of those days.

I’m one of 20 people lucky enough to be selected for the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Fellowship Course, which is sponsored by several corporations including Price Waterhouse Coopers and RSA. My fellow students are a mix of people from a wide range of backgrounds. I knew from watching their presentations and meeting them at the various selection stages that they were pretty amazing already. I know I will learn a lot from them. Their entrepreneureal ideas include several projects helping youth in London, youth in Africa, and helping communities install toilets in Africa. Like me, most have already started with their enterprises.

In today’s first session we did exercises to help us focus on our values for our enterprises, writing down our skills and listing what we wanted to gain by the end of the course. From a huge list of values, I decided that my main values were Achievement, Adventurousness, Creativity, Effectiveness, Happiness, Making a Difference and Teamwork. A vision statement for Cafe Art could be: “Connecting people affected by homelessness to the community through art.”

In the afternoon we worked on our personal development evaluations – I listed Determination, Confidence and Measuring Impact as my key skills, and Procrastination and Time Management as my Development Areas. The page is filed away to be revisited in nine months!

We ended the day with a Witness Session. These sessions are presentations by experienced social entrepreneurs, and the first one was the CEO of the SSE, Alastair Wilson, who had been a student on this course 15 years ago. He called his talk Winning Resources and Support and started explaining how the SSE was established by the late Lord Michael Young, who had also set up the Consumer Institute, Which magazine and a variety of other well known UK establishments.

Alistair explained how his social enterprise was called Homeless Direct when he did the course. Of all the projects being established this year Cafe Art was probably the closest to Homeless Direct out of all of them as his idea involved connecting with as many homelessness organisations as possible which is what Cafe Art does, although we are just connecting with the art groups. He explained how his plan was to establish a social enterprise which would direct the public to the local homeless charity in their part of the country, where ever they may be.

Alistair explained that the three test questions that he was asked when he first proposed his project were:

1. Had he run a business before?

2. Did he realise that funders don’t fund fundraising?

3. Did he know that fundraising advertising only attracts £5 from every £100 invested initially?

Alistair explained that during his time on the course he eventually changed the direction of the focus from being a fundraising programme to being a training programme for the homelessness organisations. He solved the first point (he had not run a business before and didn’t like the administrative side of it) by partnering up with the main homelessness organisation at the time. Eventually the social enterprise was financially successful but very different and was not a long term enterprise.

So, how do you win support and resources?

1. It is essential to set up a contact database. Every time you meet someone add them to the database. Nurture them.

2. Perfect your presentation. You should be able to describe it in two minutes and cover the following four points:
- Explain the problem
- Explain the solution
- Explain why is it different
- Explain how they can get involved.

3. Stop asking for permission. Give a presentation to say what you are doing. Tell them and ask what is wrong, get them involved.

4. Write a business plan. This is essential. Do a SWOT analysis. Survey the competition. do a budget, including getting quotes and attaching them to it, and other research. Do scenario plans for low, medium and high sales/success when applying for funding. Find a benchmark and do a survey. Ask advice, ask strangers for comments, ask professionals for advice. Ask, ask, ask.

5. Set up an advisory panel and make it easy for them to meet two to four times a year. Put their names on the marketing material. Your currency with these panelists is trust. Treat the relationship like gold – no surprises!

The rest of the session was filled with sound advice, gleaned from experience. We were all keenly making notes, all mentally applying the examples given to our own cases, asking questions and listening to the answers as if Alistair was the only person to have ever set up a social enterprise before. We knew this advice was gold. I can’t wait for tomorrow when the course continues.

If I had received this information a year ago I would have died.

However, I’ve been going to Toastmasters’ London Public Speakers (LPS) since last August, so I actually welcomed the news that I was to speak in front of a boardroom full of strangers.

A few weeks ago I found out that I was selected to attend this year’s School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Fellowship Course and although the course begins in May, as an introduction to the corporate sponsors I was expected to give a five-minute presentation last week.

Coincidentally I was scheduled to give my number two speech the week before at LPS. Entitled “Organise your Speech” I was able to test out my SSE speech and I gained valuable feedback from fellow members, and I was lucky to be evaluated by a skilled visiting guest evaluator to our Toastmasters’ club. After listening to my speech he told me that I needed to open with a punchier introduction, explain what Café Art is more quickly and to explain the three points I was going to make at the beginning.

One of the most important parts of a speech is the introduction, which I decided to make a question. Following the LPS advice I decided to quickly explain the three points I’d been asked to cover in the speech: What is the social enterprise, Why me and How will I measure its success? I was happy to get more pointers from an advisor from the SSE who said over the phone “you will be on late in the day so try to keep is snappy – four minutes should be enough.” The LPS speech had been seven minutes, so I would have to cut three! On the day of the speech I found out I was 13th that day, with a new presentation every 15 minutes.

I entered the boardroom on time at 3.45 and began the speech with a question:

“How would you like to help a social enterprise that builds self esteem and creates employment for homeless people yet makes a profit? And how would you feel if you knew that you were helping an entrepreneur who has done it before? In the next few minutes,” I said to the corporate sponsors, “I would like to talk to you about Cafe Art.”

I continued my prepared and note-free speech, desperately trying to remember not only all the points I had memorised, but to remain calm and try to focus on particular people as I spoke. One of my colleagues at LPS had suggested that it was effective to speak to one person directly for each point made. “It’s like pulling an arrow in a bow back and then shooting with the point.” Great suggestion and more easily said than done, but I tried to keep my focus on individuals long enough to explain particular points as I progressed through the speech.

“First I’ll explain what Cafe Art is. Second I’m going to tell you about why I am the person to do it, and third I will describe how I intend to measure its success.” They murmured their approval. So far so good I thought – here goes the first arrow…

“My first point is ‘What is Cafe Art?’ Similar to The Big Issue, Cafe Art will create employment, in our case for homeless people who attend art groups run by homeless charities giving them a chance to sell their art and connect with the public.”

“Cafe Art frames paintings by homeless artists and finds independent London cafes for it to be hung and sold in. The artists come from art groups run by homeless organisations such as St Mungo’s and Crisis. We have more than 20 cafes who hang the art for free. In less than 12 months more than £3,000 worth of art has been sold to the public, with the money going to the artists.”

I didn’t remember every detail, but amazingly I remembered most of them by cutting each point down to three points – or arrows – again. That gave me a chance to look at least nine people in the eye!

“We produced a calendar in November which raised money for artists and art groups to buy materials. Particularly successful was an artist-run stall at Spitalfields Market where we sold calendars. This year we plan to expand the sales. The 2014 calendar will be sold in art markets and also on the streets.”

I explained that the 2013 calendar was essentially a test run. We funded the printing of 1,000 copies and that cost us £3,500, but the goal was to sell all the calendars and donate £1,200 to the artists featuring in the calendar and £4,500 to the art groups.

The speech continued with some goals for this coming year: “This year we plan to create an App and we will also set up a corporate art rental scheme.”

The second part of the speech had to be about about me. While Café Art is a partnership of me and Michael Wong, I only had time to explain what I had done before, both last year for Café Art and before that. Not easy to do in one minute.

“My second point is “Why me? I come from a journalism and publishing background and successfully ran a social enterprise before, in Vancouver, Canada from 2005-2012 working with a project which was hugely successful called Hope in Shadows. It was a photography contest and exhibition and we published a calendar which was sold on the streets. It grew by 20-40% every year for seven years, earned £300,000 in annual sales and sponsorship and employed 200 vendors. If you want to know more about Hope in Shadows, please ask me later.” Later they asked about how much the calendar sold for on the street in Vancouver ($20 with $10 going to the vendor).

I continued with a few more examples of my experience including digital and volunteer management: “We plan to get some free office space near Tottenham Court Road shortly and we will be able to host volunteers, interns from Kings College and homeless artists.” They asked about the free space which I explain is provided by 3Space for charities.

Back to the speech, I presented the last but not least important points.

“My final point is ‘How will I measure success?’. The focus of this enterprise is the people it will empower. One way of measuring success is an Outcomes Star, a popular tool to measure personal development developed by St Mungo’s. Self esteem, confidence, dignity – I have witnessed many people change over night and the benefits last for years. Just a few days ago I received an email from an ex-vendor, Catherine, who told me of a job she had just got selling flowers in a market and explaining how she got her confidence from selling the calendar.” I could have mentioned more ex-vendors from Hope in Shadows as Catherine is one of several who regularly contact me via Facebook.

“Another measurement of success is earnings (profit). Our marketing plan will include targets for sales of art work, calendars and anything else we plan to sell to make a profit. We will also include sponsorship and grants in the budget.” I mentioned Hope in Shadows again briefly, but it was hard to go into any detail. The general rule will be to do what we know works but continually try new things, from the corporate rental scheme to the online sales.

“A third measurement of success is media coverage We need to get maximum exposure in the London news media. We are aiming for coverage in the local and national newspapers and on TV such as local BBC and ITV coverage.” This measure of success could not be over-emphasised. It’s hard to get noticed in London. One of the follow up questions was why did I apply to do the SSE course and apart from the obvious accounting and legal advice I replied that it was the networking that was the main reason. It’s not what you know it’s what you know and who you know.

I was hoping the conclusion didn’t sound too much like a cliché, but I knew it would resonate with this audience:  “Cafe Art is a grass roots social enterprise based on a model with proven success – helping people affected by homelessness to help themselves. With your help with mentoring you will help me grow Cafe Art. Thank you for supporting the School for Social Entrepreneurs.”

When it was over, and I’d answered a couple of questions I was thanked and was told it was over. Walking out I couldn’t believe how quickly it had gone. It was a strange feeling not getting a round of applause as I have become used to at LPS, but I knew I’d put my point across without wasting time dreading the speech beforehand, and in fact I actually enjoyed it, and I felt very much alive.

Tagzee created this painting by using a trowel and pulling it across the canvas. He recorded it and posted the video on YouTube.

‘I’m self-taught’, says the artist called Tagzee who I met in the courtyard of the British Library on a cold November morning. I was interviewing the 12 chosen artists affected by homelessness for the One calendar by Cafe Art. Cafe Art frames hundreds of paintings and drawings from more than a dozen London organisations working in the homeless sector with art groups.

Tagzee explains how he got started in art. ‘Ten years ago I got a canvas and acrylics off a friend and just thought “I’ll have a go”… and when I started making a painting I loved it to bits. The next day I went out and I bought more and more. I was drinking at that time’ he says, adding that he has now stopped. ‘I couldn’t [drink any more]. When I was drunk I couldn’t get that feeling so I stopped drinking and it just went from there!’

We had only been talking a few minutes when I suggested we break the rules and leave out Tagzee’s photo from his page in the calendar. The idea is for the public to get to know the artists affected by homelessness, read their story and read about their artwork as they describe it. But how can you do that when the artist works under a nom-de-plume and doesn’t want to be photographed? ‘Tagzee’, he says, ‘is my art name. It’s like what Banksy does. I’m a bit mysterious.’ He suggests that he can put on a balaclava for the calendar photo but I decline, thinking that it might remind people of a time in London when a photo like that would have meant that he represented the IRA.

Tagzee’s whole approach to his art is about breaking rules. He says he wanted to do something different after seeing what other people did on the internet. This painting was created with a plasterer’s trowel being swiped across with the colours on it. He says the painting itself took something like “point-something of a second to make”. Tagzee says that he bought the canvas and materials for this and 19 other paintings he created at the same time after he won £500 on the lottery.

Like many of his art pieces, including a style of painting he calls Puddle Art, he has videoed the process, posting it on YouTube. After the art is completed, the story doesn’t end there. Most of the 20 paintings in this series were dropped around London ‘for people to find,’ including Camden Market and the Tate Gallery toilets. A message on the back encourages the finder to go online and see the making of the painting and he enjoys reading comments from the public under the YouTube videos. ‘One of the comments is really good. It said that “My dad found this at the Tate gallery and it looks lovely – it’s got a nice home now and it’s on my wall.”’

Tagzee is 56 and has lived in London and came down from Scotland ’30 odd years ago’ but has always sofa surfed with friends or family. ‘I used to drink a lot but when I go into art I stopped cause I couldn’t drink and do art. I gave up the can for canvas.’ He initially went to the Crisis art class a year ago to meet other artists. Now Crisis are helping him find a permanent place to live. He says that painting has been good to him in other ways too – since discovering it 10 years ago he has given up drinking, saying he ‘gave up the can for canvas.’

Canvas and acrylics are not his only medium. ‘I’ve got my stuff I do on cardboard that looks like metal, and I’ve got the Puddle Art which nobody else has done, explaining how he discovered the process by accident: “I do Puddle Art at famous places where I get a blank canvas, I pour some graphite and water on the round, rub the canvas in it and turn it, take a picture and then from that stain I turn it into a picture. It’s called ‘puddle art of famous places’. I accidentally dropped a piece in a puddle, took it home, put it on the radiator, and when it dried all these animals appeared! And then I was thinking about street art and I thought ‘wow, I could do this!’ So I made a video, put it on YouTube and people loved it!’ His first puddle artwork, the one he discovered by accident was outside 10 Downing Street and the second was outside the Tate Gallery .

Tagzee, who sells his paintings on E-Bay, says now his prefered medium cardboard and metal. “I sell my stuff to help charities. For Crisis and stuff like that. I give 50 percent to charity”

One. I can mean many things, from ‘one step forward’, ‘united as one’ ‘one for all and all for one”. It is also the name of our 2013 calendar, featuring 12 artists affected by homelessness from 12 London homeless organisations, together in one beautiful publication, united as one.

Before I write about One calendar, being launched at a café in Islington on December 6, I would like to start with a bit about where it all began, with Cafe Art.

I first heard about Michael Wong in August. I was being interviewed for a volunteering position for St Mungo’s, explaining the Hope in Shadows calendar project I had managed in Vancouver for six years. St Mungo’s head of communications, Judith Higgin, suggested I sounded so passionate about it that had I thought about doing something similar in London? She also suggested that I might like to meet Michael Wong who she explained had just helped get together a lot of London homeless charities’ art groups together in an exhibition called Without Walls.

I met Michael a few days later in one of the cafes hanging Café Art paintings near Tottenham Court Road and he explained the story behind Café Art. Michael is very humble and does not like the idea of being in the spotlight. However, I believe that people need to know a bit about him, as he’s the reason for Café Art taking off so quickly, by personally connecting hundreds of people from the art groups, the cafes and the general public.

A Londoner of Malaysian origin, Michael’s lived here since he arrived to go to secondary school in the late 1970s, and like many people he has made London his home.

Why Café Art?

It began over a cup of coffee, in a café, says Michael. He had signed up as a volunteer with St Mungo’s with the intention of starting a ‘healthy lifestyle’ activity to encourage hostel residents to take up swimming, cycling and running. Instead, he had a call for this first session to help out in a hostel that was short on volunteers. In his exercise gear, he felt that he was ‘all dressed up with no where to go’, as it turned out to be an arts and craft session. And, he exclaims, ‘I can’t even draw!’ He returned to the art class the next week and the following week, and continued to do so ever since. He had been amazed to see the incredible paintings and drawings produced. He said he got pure joy from seeing the artwork, but it was mostly put away after each session and he wished that more people had the opportunity to see the amazing art.

‘What about cafes?’, he thought. It would enable the art to be hung all year round, helping the artists, the cafes and the general public who could view and purchase the pictures. While many of the charities hold annual art exhibitions, there was no ongoing exhibition of art by people affected by homelessness, until Café Art filled that gap in the market.

While the idea is a huge success, with many charities and cafes signing up and thousands of pounds worth of art sold (which goes directly to the artists), it does take a lot of legwork. Michael regularly hits the pavement to visit as many art groups for people affected by homelessness and as many cafes as he can find and there are now more than a dozen art groups and more than 20 independent cafes all over London. Michael also managed to upload as much art as he could to cafeart.org.uk.

All pieces of art are for sale with the purchaser’s encouraged to meet the artists, and 100% of the agreed price going to the artist.

The number of paintings hung varies in each café, from an entire café where every wall is covered, to a couple of pieces fitted in between other art. Michael can often be seen travelling around on the underground with a large black artist’s portfolio filled with framed pieces (The frames are now kindly donated by Ikea). He fits his 100% voluntary Café Art work into his regular schedule working in the pharmaceutical industry. He finds new cafes by just wandering around different parts of London and asking the owners. Most of them are close to Northern Line tube stations he explains because that’s his tube line.

But his greatest joy in this very simple initiative is the boost in self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth it brings to all these artists when they know that their talent & creativity are being shared, celebrated and enjoyed by many more people. They now know that they are not alone in their path to recovery but that sometimes, total strangers are, in fact, friends.

One calendar

One calendar has been published to raise money for the many art group who run the art classes. If it is successful it will help us look into establishing a more permanent organisaton to support Cafe Art, which until recently was all the work of Michael Wong.

The symbolism behind the calendar is that it unites many homelessness organisations together as the 12 artists featured come from at least 12 different art groups, although several go to more than one group. The name ‘One calendar’ represents many different uses of the words ‘one’ and can symbolise ‘united as one’, ‘one community’, and ‘one step forward’.

The design of the calendar was by Carter Wong Design, who donated their time and labour free of charge.

Why have a calendar? The idea behind Café Art’s One calendar comes from where I worked in Vancouver from 2005 until earlier this year. The Vancouver calendar, Hope in Shadows, is based on a photography contest held every year in one of the poorest communities in Canada, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The Vancouver calendar was a huge success, earning thousands of dollars for the social advocacy non-profit Pivot Legal Society and also for vendors of the calendar, many of whom were homeless. Hope in Shadows is mainly sold on the streets, like the Big Issue is here in London, whereas One calendar is starting with sales at events run by other charities and in participating cafes. While there is currently no plan to start up a vendor programme for street sales, we will be trialling a programme whereby the artists can sell the calendar if they want to.

The One calendar has also emulated one of the strongest parts of Hope in Shadows in that it focuses on not only the artwork, but the artist’s stories. The idea is to connect the artist with the reader in a way that promotes understanding and empathy.

One calendar’s goals are to raise money that can be used to buy art materials or other supplies to support the art groups where the artists come from. Of course the calendar will also be available online.

Paul Ryan paul [at] cafeart.org.uk

Please come and meet us at the official launch of Cafe Art’s One calendar on Thursday 6 December at Daily Grind cafe, 54 Duncan Street, London (two minutes walk from Angel Station), 6pm – 7:30pm.

The rush is on to finish off a successful first year for Cafe Art in London, with an art calendar inspired by Vancouver’s successful Hope in Shadows one.

I first heard about Michael Wong, a Malaysian Brit who moved to London to go to school when he was 16, when I was being interviewed for a volunteer job at the London Homeless charity St Mungo’s in August. Michael had volunteered with the charity which runs hostels and day centres for people affected by homelessness in January.

Michael, whose day job is working in pharmaceuticals and weekend passion is cycling, had an idea to take some people affected by homelessness out on day trips. However he said that the need at St Mungo’s was for helpers in the art group. As someone who had no experience in that area, he felt a little out of place.

When he started volunteering, he couldn’t believe the amazing artwork he saw that was created by the members of the group. Pictures were created he said, and then put away, or just hung in the art room. He felt that more people should see this amazing art. Michael had an idea: Why not approach some of the cafes he knew of that exhibited art? Better still – why not approach cafes that had no art and introduce them to these amazing artists? The idea for Cafe Art was born.

Michael now has 24 participating cafes. Soon after he realised how much the artwork was in demand by the cafes, he started contacting more homelessness organisations’ art groups. In August one of the artists, Mark, approached The Guardian and they had a successful exhibition Without Walls which brought together artists from many of the different groups.

The idea for the calendar was developed over the last six weeks. I am very excited to be a part of this project. Based on my experience in producing the Hope in Shadows calendar from 2005-2011, I will be doing my best to help make it a success. I will be interviewing the artists in the next few weeks, giving training to anyone who wants the experience in interviewing, writing and editing at the same time (at least one other artist will participate in the process at any time). We also want to try to produce a podcast, documenting the process. Michael’s uncle is a graphic designer so we will tell him how we want the calendar to look, and quickly set it out before delivering it to a printer. Like Hope in Shadows focuses on photographers , the focus is on the people who create the art. They will explain their story and it will be on the month page alongside their picture.

The cost of the printing the calendar will come from a major sponsor, yet to be announced, but sales of the calendar will also go back into it. Additional funds raised will be used to purchase art materials for the many art groups involved: one picture from each of the 12 original art groups has already been chosen for the calendar.

The time scale is short – but we are keen to get this first calendar done and then decide what to do next year. While we know most calendars are already on the market, we hope to sell these in the cafes and at small events at the charities in the month before Christmas.